外籍學生顧問 Elsa Ochoa-Fernandez 訪台感想

TAIWAN,   LA ILHA FORMOSA

by

Elsa María Ochoa-Fernández

Director of International Student Services Office, California State University, San Bernardino

Early Portuguese sailors gave Taiwan the name Ilha Formosa, which means “beautiful island”in Portuguese. One can appreciate this specially when one leaves the cities and travel through the country side. There, one encounters beautiful mountains, waterfalls, spectacular natural scenery, hot springs, lush forests and very welcoming and friendly people wherever one goes. Taiwan is a small island with very high mountains whose extension is 395 kilometers long by 144 kilometers wide, it has a population of more than 22 million people and it is unforgettably shaped like a leaf.　

I feel very privileged and honored to have received an invitation from the Ministry of Higher Education in Taiwan to go to visit this wonderful part of the world. In fact I was one of nine international educators from Canada and the United States selected to visit universities throughout the island and to participate in workshops on study abroad in Taipei, Kaosiung, Chiayi and Hualien.   I must add that I considered myself very fortunate to have as traveling companions a group of congenial individuals who made the trip even more enjoyable.

With me, there were Fanta Aw, Director of the Office of International Student Services at American University in Washington, D.C., Maria Brennan, Director of the International Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; David Hendrick, Director of International Studies at Central Washington University; Yvor M. Emmanuel, Director of the Office of International Student Affairs, at the University of Illinois, Champaign, Urbana; Deane Willis, Director of International Students at University of Texas in Austin; Judy Stymest Director of Financial Aid and International Student Services, at McGill University in Montreal, Canada;   Winnie L. Cheung, Director of the International House at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada; and Brendan P. O’Brien, Director of the International Students and Scholars Office at Cornell University.

I was very happy to finally be able to visit the place which is home to our 178 international students from Taiwan.    The places I visited were beautiful and welcoming.   I feel privileged to have had this unique opportunity to learn more about the Taiwanese culture, society and their system of higher education.

My visit which took place from October 6 - 14 started in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital located in the north of the island, with a population of over three million people.   From Taipei we traveled south, three hours by bus, to Chiayi a city of 265,000 people.    Our first official visit was to National Chiayi University where we made a presentation on our respective universities’ programs and services   to about 200 students interested in going abroad to pursue graduate studies. The university which was established in 1919 is a research university and enrolls about 10,000 students. Before the presentation we met with the vice president for academic affairs and several faculty members. Later, Dr. Kuo-Shih Yang, President of Chiayi University, hosted a wonderful lunch where we had the pleasure to enjoy exquisite Chinese cuisine.

From Chiayi we continued south to the city of Kaosiung, the second largest city in Taiwan and home to 1.5 million people. It has modern skyscrapers, organized streets, broad roads and orderly avenues that reveal the neatness and orderliness of the people in the city. In Kaosiung we gave another presentation on Study Abroad at the National Sun Yat-Sen University, another research university   Again, we had about 200 students in attendance and, of course, also interested in applying to universities abroad to pursue graduate studies.

We spent the night at Kaosiung and, as usual, we got up very early the following morning to leave at 6:00 A.M. ( I think most of us felt sleep deprived during this trip) to go by plane to Hualien situated in eastern Taiwan. Hualien a scenic, beautiful and peaceful city is an international port famous for its marble and Aborigines. Hualien is in fact the major marble center in Taiwan.   Here the group visited the National Dong Hwa University. The newest member of Taiwan’s National University System, National Dong Hwa, is a comprehensive and modern university established in 1994.   It offers strong degree programs in the natural and social sciences, business management and the humanities. We were very warmly greeted by Dr. Wen-Shu Hwang, President of the University and various faculty members. We talked for about one hour about international initiatives at our universities and about possible collaborative programs. After this informative chat we proceeded to the auditorium where we made the third presentation on our universities’ programs and services to about 300 students interested in pursuing graduate studies abroad.

Our hosts took us during the afternoon, after lunch and the tour of the campus, to visit the picturesque Taroko Gorge National Park, which is considered the jewel of Taiwan’s National Park System. Our guide took us first to the Taroko Gorge National Park Center where we saw a video and received more information about this beautiful site which faces the Pacific Ocean to the east and borders the Hsueh-shan (Snow Mountain) in the west. Of the peaks listed in “Taiwan’s One Hundred Peaks” twenty-seven are within Taroko. We had the opportunity to see Taroko gorge, the beauty of the lofty peaks and of course the Chingshui Cliff, the only place in Taroko that borders the ocean.

The following morning we were ready again at 6:00 A.M. to go to the airport to take a plane back to Taipei.   Taipei is the heart of Taiwan. It is a very dynamic city with very tall and modern buildings.   The architecture of these new buildings form a marked contrast with the Pekin style Central Railway Station, the Chian Kai Shek Memorial Hall and the National Opera House which are reminders of the Chinese culture.   We also noticed the beautiful Chinese architecture in the Grand Hotel overlooking the Keelung River, the National Palace Museum, the Sun Yat Sen Memorial and the numerous Temples.

In Taipei we went directly to the Municipal Library where we were supposed to make the fourth and final presentation to students interested in going to study abroad.   In the Municipal Library we met with our host Dr. Chen-ching Li, Director General of the Bureau of International Cultural and Educational Relations of the Ministry of Education.    Dr. Lin is a very charismatic and charming man whose down to earth attitude belies the high position he occupies in Taiwan. I was surprised and delighted to learn he had visited our campus in early 1991. We sat to discuss the format of the program that would follow, once it was set we went into the auditorium to address the audience. In attendance, there were about 600 students, from all the universities in Taipei. After our individual presentations, there was one hour of questions and answers session in which the students demonstrated how serious they are about completing a graduate studies program abroad. The session was broadcasted live in national television    After the presentation was over, we went to a very elegant restaurant to have lunch with Dr. Li, and several faculty members at different universities and who also work with Dr. Li in the Ministry of Education.

During our last day in Taipei and after the last study abroad workshop we had the opportunity to visit the handicraft market, the palace museum, the Lungshan Temple and the night market. These visits were a pleasant audio-visual-scent culturally charged learning experience which left us somewhat exhausted and satisfied, I say somewhat satisfied because this sample of the Taiwanese culture made us hungry to learn more about it.   I came to the conclussion that this experience must have a follow-up, I must return to Taiwan as a tourist so I can learn more about the wonderful Chinese culture and enjoy the friendliness of the people. After the trip, there is one thing makes me smile and that is that now when the Taiwanese students tell me “I am going home for the holidays or to spend this break in Taiwan, I can visualize them, arriving at Chiang Kai Check international airport and traveling thought the streets of their cities and somehow that makes me feel closer to them.

The study abroad workshop in which I participated is just one example of how the leadership in Taiwan is dedicated to help its students to secure a higher education in Taiwan or abroad.   It is not surprising then that the literacy rate is over 93% and most of the illiterate people are the elderly who missed their chance to get educated due to World War II.   The Ministry of Education invite groups of international educators from different countries every year to talk to their students about opportunities to study in their respective countries. Taiwan sends thousands of students to pursue studies abroad, and according to Open Doors, a publication of the Institute of International Education, it is ranked fifth in the number of students who come to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in the United States. In 2001 there were 28,566 Taiwanese students in the U.S.    From our visits with students and faculty members we learned that most of the students want to study business and management, engineering, mathematics, computer sciences, biology and communication studies.

I would like to express my profoundest appreciation to Dr. Chen-ching Li,   Director General of the Bureau of International Cultural and Educational Relations, Ministry of Education in Taiwan who made this trip possible; and to our hosts in Chiayi, Kaosiung, Hualien and Taipei. Special words of thanks to Helen Shiow-Jung Chang, representative of the Ministry of Education and our guide, who contributed to make our visit to Taiwan a good experience; to Director Shui-Chin Chang of the Cultural Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles for nominating me to be part of the delegation to Taiwan and to Julie Jong who helped me prepare for the trip.   As I said before, this was a wonderful learning experience which allowed me to increase my understanding of the Taiwanese culture and higher education system but also gain a new admiration for its society which is determined to have all its individuals to reach through education their potential as true citizens of the world.

　